Brats director Andrew McCarthy has an idea of why he thinks Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson didn’t appear in the documentary.
As Claire said during her weekend detention, “I hate having to go along with everything my friends say.” Apparently taking a cue, Molly Ringwald – along with Judd Nelson – was one of the key members of the Brat Pack who sat out of being interviewed for Andrew McCarthy’s documentary Brats. So, where were they?
As McCarthy told Entertainment Tonight, both Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson may not have been feeling particularly bratty, at least not in the way he would have wanted. “I mean, they both are in the film in a sense that there’s a lot of clips and interviews and things. The Brat Pack is an ongoing relationship, you know what I mean? And some people are at different places in their lives to want to or not want to talk about it. I think that just informs it even more. I mean, that’s my takeaway from it.” Interestingly, the trio never all worked together on a movie, although McCarthy and Ringwald notably co-starred in Pretty in Pink (and the lesser-known Fresh Horses), McCarthy and Nelson appeared in St. Elmo’s Fire, and Ringwald and Nelson suffered through detention at Shermer High School on March 24th, 1984.
The Brat Pack label may not have been a favorite of its members, but there’s no denying the impact the group had. And while Brats is serviceable enough, missing people like Ringwald and Nelson definitely hurts the overall production. (Nelson does briefly appear via phone call but it’s kind of out of place.) Even still, McCarthy is happy that he got the likes of Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy and more for the movie, saying, “I was surprised as many people would want to speak to me [that] did, you know, because I thought the biggest challenge would be to get people to participate. I knew it was still so sort of dodgy in some people’s lives.”
Collectively, Andrew McCarthy, Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson have starred in eight unique movies within the Brat Pack universe, with the aforementioned St. Elmo’s Fire the biggest in terms of total members featured.
Have you had a chance to watch Brats yet? Would Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson interviews have benefited the doc? Give us your take below.